Noche de Muertos. It is celebrated the night in between November 1 and 2. It is, as I understand, a remembrance of the dead. (There are also historical and "spiritual" aspects of it. Here, consult Wikipedia.) "Ofrendas" or "alters" are erected, and there are candles and cempazuchitl flowers (marigolds) everywhere. Janitzio, an island an hour or so away from here, is apparently the international gathering place for celebration. We went to look and stopped a few other places, too.
Pansita de Calabaza. AKA, pumpkin bread. I'll tell you, folks, in the absence of Halloween AND Thanksgiving, pumpkins are a rare sight in Morelia. And they are not a "flavor of fall". There are certainly no cans of "Libbys" to be found here. (Except the one sitting in my locker at NOE, which was sent to me by my mother, via a visitor to the US. Thank you, very much. : ))
I shared about the traditional November goodies with my host-mom, who then went to the neighbors and retrieved half a calabaza. That is, a pumpkin. Like, a pumpkin-pumpkin. So we cooked and scraped and blended and made our very own pumpkin puree. I felt like an accomplished pioneer woman. (Ha! A pioneer woman with an electric blender and a gas stove.)
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| Lupita and Damaris helped : ) |
Evan Craft. I hadn't heard of him, or his music. But he was coming to town, and we got tickets. It was fun, and actually really encouraging! He is a "gringo", just like me, who learned Spanish a few years ago and is doing something incredible with it. (He has his own songs, but he also does covers of "Hillsong United" and other similar artists and translates them into Spanish.) Way to go, Evan.
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